2000

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.1356 Wednesday, 5 July 2000.
From: Geralyn Horton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 04 Jul 2000 18:10:18 -0400
Subject: 11.1340 Re: Macbeth is Listening
Comment: Re: SHK 11.1340 Re: Macbeth is Listening
>Julie Blumenthal
>As an American actor and director with some modicum of classical
>training, I must protest Geralyn Horton's summation that "In the short
>rehearsal periods that are all we Yanks can afford
Why are you all protesting my summation??? I paraphrased and combined
several posts from the NYTimes Forum discussion, but I didn't intend
thereby to express my own opinion: I never saw the Grammer production.
I was on the Boston press list and invited to review for AisleSay, but I
didn't RSVP quickly enough, and all the press seats were gone. I wish I
had seen it: that would have given me some terms of comparison for
reviewing the under-rehearsed MacB that opened the Boston Publick
Theatre's 30th season this week. I have some idea how long this
particular Publick Theatre production's rehearsal period was, because I
gave one of the witches a ride to her first rehearsal the evening of
June 13th. First preview was June 29th, opening the 30th. That is, at
most, 16 days. I know that the actor playing Banquo had Monday June 26th
off, because I saw him at a photo shoot for a play he is doing the first
week in September. Not much rehearsal time, that. Especially if some
of the actors also have Day Jobs.
However, I know that miracles happen. One of the best performances of
the Faure Requiem ever (yes, you'll have to take my word for this) was
at an informal "sing" where the conductor (N. Patterson) spent just 20
minutes going over entrance cues with the 150 random voices who happened
to show up at Old South and pay $5 to rent a score. I remember the hair
rising up on the back of my neck, somewhere around the bass section
entrance at "Kyrie", when-- along with everyone else present-- I
realized that we weren't just reading through: that somehow we had
become an expressive instrument in the hands of an inspired conductor.
But I'd venture to suggest that selling tickets to miracles can be a bit
of a problem.....?
Geralyn Horton, Playwright
Newton, Mass. 02460
<http://www.tiac.net/users/ghorton>